tl;dr - our societal systems of perception, especially of what is "normal" or "reliable" are dominated by white supremacism and patriarchy. This will not end well. Short one, because I should be feeding moorhens and doing a dozen good projects but I'm not. WASP stands for "White Anglo Saxon Protestant" - the "normal" for US... Continue Reading →
Of Sophisticated Hopium Ignoring Trajectories; an exhausted rant on Solnit, Morton, the Kleins etc
tl;dr - there is a market for "brightside-ing" that relies on ignoring the relevant trajectories and instead cherry-picking largely irrelevant factoids. Even otherwise worth-reading writers peddle it some of the time. Examples are given, "what is to be done" addressed. I'm not going to recap the scale and scope of the shit we are in.... Continue Reading →
Doubling down or climbing down? What next for Starmer/Cooper vs public opinion on the proscription of Palestine Action
On July 3 the legislation to proscribe the direct action group Palestine Action passed the Lords. An article was published that had the following warning in its last paragraph. "The police could face ridicule if they enforce the law, and the charge of selectiveness if they don’t. “Are we saying they should arrest thousands of... Continue Reading →
We are taught deference, but (because?) They. Really. Are. Not. That. Bright.
I went to posh schools (a minor prep school in Hampshire and then the second 'best' school in Adelaide). At university I was on the fringe of the political set, who went on to State and Federal politics. Beyond that, I spent (i.e. wasted) a solid decade and a half interacting with the Manchester Labour... Continue Reading →
Archival nugget about TUC versus the anti-nukers…
Last week was, well, interesting. At some point I will write about it. For now, this - I spent two days at the National Archives (one of my happy places) and hauled away a couple of thousand pictures of pages from various (60 or 70? distinct folders - some literally a page, others 3 inches... Continue Reading →
The politics of Tom Lehrer: Noam Chomsky with a Piano?
Tom Lehrer died, aged 97, in late July. Lehrer had written 37 (well, a few more) songs in the 1950s and 1960s, and on the basis of this is still (rightly in my opinion) regarded as one of the pre-eminent satirists of the 20th century. Interviewed in 2014 Weird Al Yankovic said "I wouldn’t call... Continue Reading →
Brian Bilston’s poem “Today’s Climate Forecast”
Brian Bilston nailing it, July 10 this year.
“Leaning in” – it’s easier, after all…
There's a new book called Fascist Yoga, which I am probably not going to read, but I am probably glad that it exists. Meanwhile
marchudson.net 